Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

late 6th–5th century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white and opaque yellow. Thin, inward-sloping rim-disk; tall, slanting, cylindrical neck, with marked horizontal line at base; short, rounded shoulder; elongated oval body with upward taper; convex bottom; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trails. One white trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied below shoudder and wound down in tight spiral on upper part of body, where a second broader trail in yellow is added, mingling with the first, then both tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around middle of body, formed by uneven shallow vertical tooling indents; below this, white trail continues in an uneven spiral around lower part of body; another white trail applied to outer edge of one handle. Broken and repaired with numerous holes in body and half of rim-disk missing; dulling, deep pitting and weathering, and faint iridescence.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 6th–5th century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891